


It's Just The Night

by Little_Cello



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Bittersweet, Gen, Post-Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-20
Updated: 2014-11-20
Packaged: 2018-02-26 09:23:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2646746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Cello/pseuds/Little_Cello
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam can't sleep. At all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Just The Night

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't able to sleep until after 3.30am last night... so I wrote fic. Title taken from the song "It's Just The Night" by I Am Kloot.

From the moment Sam Tyler jumped off a roof in 2006 and landed in a train tunnel in 1973, he hasn't slept a wink.

 

He lies awake through the night, staring at the ceiling. It has been 3 weeks since his decision. 21 days. 504 hours. 30240 minutes.

 

Sam Tyler doesn't mind.

 

To be fair, here in this world it never had felt like he got any kind of restful sleep. Sure, he would close his eyes at some point, and open them at another, and time would have passed, but it had always left him with the impression that those hours had simply been cut out of the flow of time instead of passing normally. Had he ever felt rested after a night like this? No, he can't say he did. It had always been more of an unpleasant surprise to be conscious again, like someone had thrown him into cold water. Sometimes that someone would be the girl from the test card, sometimes his nightmares, sometimes his overweight, borderline-alcoholic superior. At the time, Sam had felt shattered near every morning, weighed down by both his sense of helplessness over his situation, and the physical pressure of lacking rest.

 

These days, sleep doesn't come at all.

 

'Sleep,' the girl had told him. Sam had refused to so as she told him.

 

Now she is gone, and it seems that she has taken his sleep with her.

 

Maybe she wasn't there to kill Sam, to keep him from waking up from his coma.

 

Maybe all she wanted was for him to stay healthy.

 

Sam smiles faintly at the ceiling.

 

Yeah, right.

 

At any rate, he's fine. The first few nights, his new condition had spooked him. He thought he was suffering insomnia, that his work performance would be impaired, that he would simply collapse sooner rather than later.

 

But that point never came, just like the exhaustion never built up the way it should have. In fact, by now he has all but forgotten what being tired feels like. Sam hasn't told anyone about his condition, and no one seems to have noticed so far, because DI Tyler is at the top of his game, always. Making up after the train tunnel fiasco had been been easier than he had thought it would, and now the team functions like a well-oiled machine. DCI Hunt and DI Tyler are a well-known and well-respected team. His relationship with Gene, as well as the rest of CID, has improved significantly. He can't remember ever having felt so fulfilled by the work he does.

 

And of course, Sam has come to accept his state of sleeplessness. He's taken to simply lying in bed, letting his gaze slide out of focus, allowing his mind to roam. In many ways, this is so much more restful than what counted for sleep “Before”. Sam feels... at peace.

 

And a bit melancholy, at times.

 

He finds himself thinking about the girl with her clown more often than not.

 

He really should have taken the time to ask her who she was. If he hadn't been so panicked, so utterly confused and lost, he might have remembered .

 

But now, Sam Tyler lies in his bed, letting time trickle by.

 

One of these days, he'll probably have to figure out what has gone wrong with his body, what he appears to have lost within the transition from there to here.

 

One of these nights, he is probably going to pass out and sleep the sleep of the dead.

 

Or maybe he won't.

 

The faint smile is still on his lips.

 

Sam Tyler is lying in bed, letting the world pass by, letting it pass through his head. There are worse ways to spend one's time. There is worse than his lot.

 

***

 

"Still no change to his condition then, Doctor?"

 

"I'm afraid not. He is in a deep state of coma - no telling if he will wake up at all."

 

"I see."

 

"No objections?"

 

"Well, I do have eyes in me head, y'know."

 

"... I am sorry, sir."

 

"Yeah. Me too."

 

He looks down at the prone form in the hospital bed, hooked up to machines which supply the only sign of life. Without them, the man they are connected to would be dead all the way. That's what a bullet to the head does to you - normally, at any rate.

 

Gene lowers his gaze, scoffing silently. When had his DI ever been normal? Couldn't even die properly, the little nosewipe.

 

"Don't know what you're grinning at, Mona Lisa," he tells the man, looking at him again. No response, just that faint ghost of a smile on his lips.

 

As horrible as the situation is, Gene has to admit that he's never seen him so completely at peace. Wherever he is, it must be a nice place.

 

But if that really is the case, then why does Gene feel so sad?

 

He turns, and limps out of the room (he doesn't need the cane any more at least, but the bullet wound is still giving him grief). He will come back to visit again tomorrow, like he has for the past three weeks.

 

It's all he can do for Sam.

 

He doesn't deserve it - not after that grand cock-up, not after he nearly got them all killed - but then again, he paid for it, and is still doing so. Gene can't bring himself to leave him alone.

 

Maybe Sam will come back.

 

Maybe one day, his body will decide that it has slept for long enough.

 

Or maybe, one night, his body will decide that it's better to go all the way, and let Sam slip away completely.

 

Either would be better than this lot. Sam can smile all he wants; Gene can't imagine that he's in a good place, locked in his own mind. Sam Tyler's mind has always seemed like an awfully complicated and twisted place to be in.

 

Gene glances back at Sam. His DI is still smiling.

 

Before he closes the door, Gene switches off the light.

 

"Sweet dreams, Sam."


End file.
